


Worth 1,000 Words

by aveotardis



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 19:49:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3741436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aveotardis/pseuds/aveotardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin hated personal pictures at work. Until he didn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worth 1,000 Words

There was a picture on Harry’s desk. Harry never had personal pictures, not even before he became Arthur. Merlin could only see the back of it, but he had a sneaking suspicion of what was on the front. It wasn’t exactly a secret. Kisses in the hall as they passed by one another, holding hands, leaving at the end of the day together. Not to mention the frankly god awful pet names they insisted on calling one another.

“Is that wise?” Merlin asked Harry after their meeting had ended. He had stood to make his leave, but thought better of it, the impudence of keeping a personal memento gnawing at him.

“Everything I do is wise,” Harry responded without missing a beat. Merlin rolled his eyes dramatically.

“The picture, Harry, is it wise to have a picture of Eggsy on your desk?” Merlin restated, leaving no room for a quip. Harry’s eyes darted to said picture and back.

“I think it an awful nice picture,” Harry quipped. He turned it around so Merlin could see. The photo was indeed of Eggsy. He was smiling and wore his bespoke suit. Harry turned the photo back around and stared at it for a moment, smiling faintly. Merlin sighed and left without further comment, wishing he had done so in the first place.

\--

“Oh, fuck!” Merlin heard Eggsy shout one day in the middle of the shooting range. He rushed over to the younger man immediately, concerned of a back fire or misfire. But when he reached Eggsy he seemed in perfect condition; no cuts, bruises, blisters, or blood. He stood with his noise cancelling headphones around his neck, his gun loose in one hand and his phone held up to eye level in the other.

“What’s wrong, Galahad?” Merlin asked, worry dissipating.

“I dropped my bleedin’ mobile,” Eggsy replied, holding the phone out for Merlin’s inspection. It was a Kingsman issued phone, impervious to bullets, but leave it to Eggsy fucking Unwin to break the glass screen.

Merlin gingerly took it from the young man’s grasp, looking closer at the broken glass. He was about to remark that he could fix it before the end of the day when he noticed the background photo. It was Harry. In pants. And nothing else.

“Oh, for the love of-” Merlin rolled his head in exasperation.

“What, ya can’t fix it?” Eggsy furrowed his brow.

“It’s not that, it’s this picture,” Merlin said, gestured to the phone. Eggsy looked unconcerned. “Why do you have this picture on your phone?”

“Normal people have pictures of their boyfriends,” Eggsy explained.

“Normal people don’t have a super-secret undercover spy job at which their boyfriend is their boss,” Merlin nearly whined. He walked off before Eggsy could give any response, the boy going back to his shooting with a shrug of his shoulders.

Merlin fixed the phone and deleted the picture, and every other picture, some of which were quite provocative, before returning it. Needless to say he could not get the image of a naked Harry and Eggsy out of his head for days.

 

\--

Unfuckingbelievable. Merlin sat in front of Harry’s desk. And on top of that desk sat not one but two picture frames. He could not concentrate on anything his superior was telling him as he was much too busy trying to destroy the pictures with his eyes. He really must get heat rays for the glasses.

“Merlin, are you even listening to me?” Harry asked. Merlin finally looked up to him and any lesser man would have coward.

“Why are there two pictures on your desk?” Merlin asked, gritting his teeth. This time Harry blanched and Merlin was almost too caught off guard to pursue the matter. He quickly stood and turned the new photo around.

It was the fucking dog. Harry Hart, leader of an international spy organization, one of the deadliest men on the planet, had a picture of a fucking pug on his desk. Merlin set the frame back down with more force than strictly necessary. He tried to think of something to say, some reasonable argument, of which there were many. In his frustration he strode out of the room and called over his shoulder, “It isn’t even your fucking dog!”

\--

Galahad was injured, badly. Merlin was on comm with him, trying to keep him calm, reassuring him that Lancelot was on her way. He debated alerting Arthur, the man would want to know one of his knights was in danger, this one in particular. He thought better of it, time was of the essence.

“Tell Harry…” Galahad breathed harshly, a punctured lung.

“Shut the fuck up, Galahad,” Merlin commanded. “Lancelot, how far?”

“100 meters,” she answered in a strained voice. Merlin could hear her footsteps thumping harshly.

“I need you to tell him…” Galahad’s voice was faint now, nearly gone. “I…love…”

“50 meters!” Lancelot all but shouted. Merlin sat behind his desk and watched the feed, green in night vision. There was a small dot that appeared on Lancelot’s display: Galahad. Merlin saw her push to run faster. “I’ve got him!”

She knelt down to him and felt for a pulse, for breathing. He was still alive. Merlin watched as Lancelot took out her med kit and began to do anything she could. The helicopter swooped in, landing just close enough.

“They’re here, Eggsy,” he heard Lancelot whisper. “You’ve got to hold on for me. For Arthur.”

Merlin saw Galahad twitch, his hand reached up and placed something in her hand but Merlin could not see what. The feed became chaotic as the medical crew ran in.

Some two hours later Eggsy was in the infirmary. Harry paced back and forth at the foot of the bed, eyes never leaving the younger man. Roxy sat in a chair nearby, a bullet had grazed her shoulder and Merlin forced her to see that it was cared for. She looked up at Harry as the nurse stitched the wound.

“He wanted you to have this,” she said and outstretched her hand. Merlin looked to her at the same time Harry did. It was a folded piece of paper. Harry slowly reached out and took it, looking as though in a stupor. He unfolded it carefully and for a moment Merlin feared Harry would faint. He was quick to his feet to put a supportive arm around his friend, and took the opportunity to look down at the paper.

It was a drawing, obviously done by a child. Two stick figures, both wearing ties, one with Harry written above his head and the other with Eggsy. At their feet was a stick figure dog, with JB written below. At the corner of the paper was written in sloppy letters: for my brother and his boyfriend love Daisy. Harry ran an absent hand over the drawing. He sucked in a shaky breath and looked to Eggsy, eyes glistening with the tears he was holding back.

\--

The next time Merlin came for a meeting the picture was hanging on the wall behind the desk, proudly on display. It reminded them all how lucky they are, to be alive, to have one another in those lives. And if there were a few more pictures that found their way to Harry’s desk, no one ever mentioned it. Not even Merlin. Though the emails and Snapchats would have to stop. Somethings he really just did not need to see.


End file.
